Campus news in brief

University administration announced in a campus-wide email last Monday that the University Center (UC), which is set to be expanded and renovated over the course of the next two years, will be named after Jared Cohon, president emeritus and professor of civil and environmental engineering and engineering and public policy.

According to the email, the new name for the UC comes from a resolution of Carnegie Mellon’s Board of Trustees. The naming continues a long tradition of Carnegie Mellon buildings taking the names of former university presidents.

“In keeping with CMU’s tradition of naming buildings for past presidents, the University Center will be named in recognition of Dr. Cohon’s many contributions to the success of the university, its students, faculty, and staff during his 16 years as president,” the email said.

The email continued, “As the center of campus life, the Cohon University Center will be an enduring and fitting tribute to Dr. Cohon’s extraordinary personal engagement with students and his leadership style that focused on bringing diverse groups of people together to create better outcomes for all.”

The expanded UC, which is set to be completed in fall 2016, will include new fitness and recreation spaces for students, as well as a new studio theater and space for student organizations.

Cohon served as Carnegie Mellon’s president from 1997–2013, before which he served as dean of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies at Yale University and assistant and associate dean of engineering and vice provost for research at Johns Hopkins University. Cohon was also named the director of the nascent Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation in February after retiring as president in June 2013.

Carlow University launches CREATE Lab

Carlow University, an institution based in Pittsburgh, received a $205,000 grant from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation to create a satellite lab of Carnegie Mellon’s Community Robotics, Education, and Technology Empowerment (CREATE) Lab.

“We believe having a CREATE Lab satellite at the Campus School will benefit The Campus School [of Carlow University] students and faculty, and also Carlow’s School of Education faculty and students,” said Suzanne Mellon, Carlow University’s president, in a university press release. “We thank the Benedum Foundation for recognizing the potential in this unique opportunity for both students and faculty to learn and excel.”

According to a university press release, Carlow will join West Virginia’s “Marshall University, West Virginia University, and West Liberty University in establishing CREATE Lab satellites.” The press release also states that “Collaboration and sustained involvement with the community are significant components of the mission of the CREATE Lab, which is both a technology breeding ground and a community partner.”

Carlow’s School of Education and The Campus School of Carlow University are set to collaborate on the project. While The Campus School will establish two projects, Arts & Bots and GigaPan, the School of Education is set to lead the Children’s Innovation Project.

In a statement on the press release, Dror Yaron, the outreach director of the lab, said, “The CREATE Lab is pleased to partner with Carlow to help future teachers prepare their students to become technologically fluent. The next generation of students should look at technology as a raw material — something that can be used to achieve community and/or personal goals. We envision the four schools of education — three in West Virginia and Carlow — in partnership with CREATE Lab and ASSET STEM Education, to work together as a network to develop, validate, and share best practices. That has already begun to happen.”

The CREATE Lab is directed by Illah Nourbaksh, professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon.